North Korean thaw? Kim Jong Un hosts Seoul envoys for first time as Trump says country 'called up' to talk

Trump said Saturday that North Korea has recently sought talks with the United States and that he 'won't rule out direct talks with Kim Jong Un'

Kim Yong-Chol, second right, vice chairman of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, talks with South Korean delegation on March 5, 2018 in Pyongyang, North Korea.South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty Images

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks with top aides to South Korea’s Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang on Monday, the president’s office said, in the first meeting between the leader of the isolated nation and officials from Seoul since he took power in 2011.

National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon were in the North Korean capital to persuade Kim to start talks with the U.S. on denuclearization and stave off a potential conflict over his nuclear program. The envoys also planned to discuss with Pyongyang officials the release of three Korean-Americans detained in North Korea.

Kim, who came to power in 2011, hosted the pair for a dinner that started at 6 p.m. Seoul time, a spokesman for Moon told a briefing. The delegation arrived around 2:50 p.m.

Chung Eui-Yong, center head of the presidential National Security Office, Suh Hoon, second left, the chief of the South’s National Intelligence Service, and other delegators pose before boarding an aircraft as they leave for Pyongyang at a military airport on March 5, 2018 in Seongnam, South Korea.Jung Yeon-Je-Pool/Getty Images

The South Korean envoys are due to travel to Washington later this week to discuss the results of their discussions with the Trump administration. Their two-day trip follows a visit by Kim’s sister to South Korea last month, when she invited Moon to North Korea to meet her brother for what would be the first inter-Korean summit for 11 years.

The Winter Olympics — including the Paralympics that run March 9-18 — have provided a window to rebuild diplomatic ties after an escalating series of North Korean weapons tests last year prompted United Nations sanctions and threats of military action by U.S. President Donald Trump. While both the U.S. and North Korea say they’re open to talks, it’s unclear how much either side is willing to concede.

Trump and Moon spoke about the situation in a 30-minute phone call last week. The White House said the leaders “noted their firm position that any dialogue with North Korea must be conducted with the explicit and unwavering goal of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.”

President Donald Trump speaks on the phone in a June file photo.Evan Vucci/ Associated Press

Trump said Saturday that North Korea has recently sought talks with the United States and that he “won’t rule out direct talks with Kim Jong Un,” the North Korean leader.

“Now we’re talking. They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago, they said ‘we would like to talk,’” Trump said. “And I said, ‘so would we, but you have to denuke.’”

That would mark the first such outreach from North Korea, which backed out of a potential meeting with Vice President Mike Pence at the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month. North Korea has vowed it will not give up its nuclear weapons, but the United States insists that any negotiations to lower tensions would have the goal of denuclearization.

It was not clear whether Trump was describing a direct conversation or messages sent through diplomatic channels. Trump has previously said he thinks he could have a good relationship with Kim, were they ever to try to resolve tensions directly. A U.S. official said earlier this year that Trump and Kim had never spoken.

Trump has vowed not to repeat what he calls the mistakes of past administrations that negotiated with North Korea. Talks never stopped North Korea from pursuing weapons and left the United States looking weak, Trump has said. He said last year that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was wasting his time trying to open talks, but has more recently said he would consider them under the right conditions.

Trump has not laid out how any future negotiations would be structured, except to say that North Korea’s nuclear weapons must be on the table. Anne Gearan for The Washington Post. Kanga Kong for Bloomberg

When my assistant said there was a call from the White House, I picked up, said 'Hello' and started to ask if this was a prank

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